HR 3696 will codify into law the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, a public-private collaboration within the Department of Homeland Security. The center will offer real-time cyberthreat information sharing across critical infrastructure sectors, according to Bank Info Security.

“The emergence of complex, multistage exploits that quietly penetrate critical targets by leveraging vulnerabilities several links away from the target mean that it is difficult to be sure any system is effectively isolated. Because of this level of complexity and interconnectivity, it almost is impossible to find a system that might not be rated critical,” GCN, a website following public sector IT news, opined last month as HR 3696 emerged from a House subcommittee.

CAN AMERICAN STATES REIN IN AN OUT-OF-CONTROL FEDERAL SPY AGENCY?

But Obama refuses to rein in the NSA, Dianne Feinstein says that Congress “doesn’t have the votes” to do anything about mass surveillance, and at least some judges are supporting the NSA’s spying (and it’s not clear what the Supreme Court will do).

But states are trying to fight back …

Legislation has been introduced in 10 states (and counting) proposing one or both of the following:

(1) Cutting off water, electricity or other resources to NSA facilities within the state

(2) Prohibiting the state’s cooperation with the NSA; for example, sharing data about its citizens, or university research support for NSA

By making “at least a dozen major adjustments” to Obamacare without congressional approval, Barack Obama is making a mockery of the U.S. Constitution. Throughout human history, political power has always tended to become concentrated in the hands of one man. The Founding Fathers knew this, and they tried very hard to keep that from happening in the United States. A system in which the people rule themselves is a very precious and fragile thing. As humans, we all have the tendency to want more power. That is why a “separation of powers” was such a radical concept. As Bill Federer is constantly pointing out, the Founding Fathers made our federal government inefficient on purpose. They wanted a system of checks and balances that would make it difficult to push through major changes very rapidly. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has become extremely frustrated by this and has expressed his intention to rule by decree as much as he can during the remainder of his second term.

In our system, the legislature is supposed to make the laws, and the executive branch is supposed to execute them. But Obama does not seem to care for that arrangement too much. Just recently, he made the following statement…

“We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”

“That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.”

Of course that was probably a joke, but it just reveals what his mindset is.

Obama believes that he has a tremendous amount of power, and he has consistently exhibited a blatant disregard for the U.S. Constitution.

This week, Obama made another major change to the Affordable Care Act without getting congressional approval. At this point, it has become clear that Obama believes that he can change any law, for any reason, any time that he likes.

‘ObamaCare” is useful shorthand for the Affordable Care Act not least because the law increasingly means whatever President Obama says it does on any given day. His latest lawless rewrite arrived on Monday as the White House decided to delay the law’s employer mandate for another year and in some cases maybe forever.

Charles Krauthammer is completely outraged by all of this. He says that this is the kind of “stuff you do in a banana republic”…

But generally speaking you get past the next election by changing your policies, by announcing new initiatives, but not by wantonly changing the law lawlessly. This is stuff you do in a banana republic. It’s as if the law is simply a blackboard on which Obama writes any number he wants, any delay he wants, and any provision.

It’s now reached a point where it is so endemic that nobody even notices or complains. I think if the complaints had started with the first arbitrary changes — and these are are not adjustments or transitions. These are political decisions to minimize the impact leading up to an election. And it’s changing the law in a way that you are not allowed to do.

If Obama wants part of Obamacare to be changed, he must ask Congress to change it.

He cannot change laws all by himself.

As Stanford Law School Professor Michael McConnell stated last year, the Office of Legal Counsel for the Justice Department “has always insisted that the president has no authority, as one such memo put it in 1990, to ‘refuse to enforce a statute he opposes for policy reasons.’”

What in the world is happening to this country?

Meanwhile, those that are objecting to the lawless behavior of the Obama administration are increasingly being portrayed as national security threats. This is also the kind of thing that we are accustomed to seeing in banana republics. According to a recent WND article, the Ohio Army National Guard conducted a training drill last year in which the “enemies” were supporters of the 2nd Amendment and had “right-wing beliefs“…

Internal documents from an Ohio Army National Guard training drill conducted in January 2013 describe the details of a mock disaster in which Second Amendment supporters with “anti-government” beliefs were portrayed as domestic terrorists.

The Guard’s 52nd Civil Support Unit and first responders in hazmat suits conducted the training exercise last year in Portmouth, Ohio. In the terror-attack scenario, two Portsmouth Junior High School teachers follow orders from a white-nationalist leader to poison school lunches with mustard gas to advance their “right-wing” beliefs about gun rights.

“It’s the reality of the world we live in,” Portsmouth Police Chief Bill Raisin told WSAZ-TV. “Don’t forget there is such a thing as domestic terrorism. This helps us all be prepared.”

Whether you support Barack Obama or you are deeply opposed to him, hopefully we can all agree that he needs to follow the law.

Hopefully good sense will prevail and Obama will stop trying to rule by decree. There is a reason why we have a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. One man is not supposed to make all of the decisions. The members of Congress should be loudly objecting to this massive power grab by Obama.

Please pray for Barack Obama and for Congress. Up to this point, they have been behaving very foolishly. Let us pray that they will soon return to following the U.S. Constitution.

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Sniper Ammunition: Homeland Security Revives The Purchases

“My first shot at a hog with an AMAX out of the 300 SAUM was spectacular. Hit in the neck at 258 yards and there was only a little piece of fur holding the body together at that point. Good terminal performance.” - Mark Swab’s appraisal of the Hornady .308 AMAX sniperammunition round

Despite rising unemployment, record number of people on public assistance, the US Government via the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed a solicitation for more sniper ammo, in this order – they are requesting 141,160 rounds of ammunition (7,058 boxes) of Hornady .308 Winchester 168gr A-MAX TAP Ammunition.

Sniper Ammunition

What makes the .308 ammunition so deadly is the long range capability of the round. The ability is called ballistic coefficient, or the efficiency of a projectile in overcoming air resistance as it travels to its target. According to Speer Reloading Manual Number 13, the .308 165 grain has the highest coefficient of any hunting rifle round:

.224″ (.22) 55 grain, BC .255

.243″ (6mm) 90 grain, BC .385

.243″ (6mm) 100 grain BT, BC .430

.257″ (.25) 100 grain BT, BC .393

.257″ (.25) 120 grain BT, BC .435

.264″ (6.5mm) 120 grain, BC .433

.264″ (6.5mm) 140 grain, BC .496

.277″ (.270) 130 grain BT, BC .449

.284″ (7mm) 145 grain, BC .457

.308″ (.30) 150 grain BT, BC .423

.308″ (.30) 165 grain BT, BC .477

.311″ (.303) 150 grain, BC .411

.323″ (8mm) 150 grain, BC .369

.338″ (.338) 200 grain, BC .448

.375″ (.375) 270 grain BT, BC .429

Hornady ammunition is not for the budget minded, and the Federal government will pay a premium price for their sniper ammunition: approximately $1.20 for each round, when they can get a lower grain .308 round for as little as $0.69 for a 147 grain .308 round from Lucky Gunner.